A Day at Mashhad | Hyperlapse | Holy Shrine of Imam Ali Raza (as)

A Day at Mashhad | Hyperlapse | Holy Shrine of Imam Ali Raza (as).

The Imam Reza shrine (Persian: حرم امام رضا‎) in Mashhad, Iran, is a complex which contains the mausoleum of Imam Reza, the eighth Imam of Twelver Shias. It is the largest mosque in the world by area. Also contained within the complex are the Goharshad Mosque, a museum, a library, four seminaries, a cemetery, the Razavi University of Islamic Sciences, a dining hall for pilgrims, vast prayer halls, and other buildings.

The complex is a tourism center in Iran and has been described as "the heart of the Shia Iran" Shia sources quote several hadiths from the Shia Imams and Prophet Muhammad that highlight the importance of pilgrimage to the shrine. A hadith from the Islamic Prophet reads:

One of my own flesh and blood will be buried in the land of Khorasan. God the Highest will surely remove the sorrows of any sorrowful person who goes on pilgrimage to his shrine. God will surely forgive the sins of any sinful person who goes on pilgrimage to his shrine.

Some 35 million Iranian and non-Iranian Shias visits the shrine each year.